Gregor

2 hours ago, Alan Simpson said:

Haha knew I'd win u over brother! To win you need to score and our strikers just aren't capable of double figures there must've been better than White available his record at Barrow was shocking I'd have kept Bell before him! Your right tho no more looking at midfielders we don't need priority in Jan has to be a half decent striker even on loan!

listen up folks

Oakley 7 league starts 4 goals

White 8 league  starts 4 goals

Anyone with any knowledge of football will know these stats are very good.

Stop blaming the strikers and look at the other end of the park and maybe you will find where we need to improve.

13 hours ago, wynthank15 said:

I agree with your statement CaleyD at least the first part of it. The All Blacks win about 90% of their games. When they do lose you don't hear them whining about the pitch or how this or that player didn't perform, they compliment the opposition on the win and set about ensuring it doesn't happen again. That's what I call classy and no way do AB teams ignore their deficiencies they are pretty ruthless at correcting them.

Good point but its rugby and a different mindset from teams and fans.

In football most clubs have a critical fanbase and we all want to win. Im no different I would rather watch a winning team than a team playing awesome football and losing. My gripe is not so much the critics but just picking out certain players to blame on a regular basis as I feel football fans aee guilty of that on a regular basis and therfore a scapegoat is all that is bad at the club.

Its happened here with White , sure he isnt Ronaldo but he is nowhere as bad as some say. I have tried suggesting different formations as we have to find the correct formations to suit the players at the club.

The buck stops with the manager he picks the team and since he has come back to the club has done well and I applaud him.

However imo we have some really good players who we have use coreectly to get the best out of them.We saw a major glimpse of that at Dumfries in the latter part of the game with reverting to two up allowing Polworth space in middle of park to create and have the physicality of White and Austin beside him which helped make space for Walsh and young McGregor on both flanks.

But what did we do against Edinburgh City , yes we played 2 up but put Polly out wide and played two players , Welsh and Chalmers who have played this season as defensive midfield players , and all of a sudden asked them to be creative in central mid. So Im not surprised it didnt work.

Most managers would say if you get the spine of team cortect then you can build on that I feel that we have that in 5 very decent players below then add the width to this team and go 442 

Ridgers

Donaldson McCart

Polworth

White

We all have opinions and that whats great about football.

Being passionate is what being a football club supporter  is all about and we at Caley are no different and sometimes this spills out to being over critical.

I honestly believe we are only a little tweak away from going on a winning streak if we play to the strengths of the players we have at the club.

12 hours ago, Fraz said:

Hiya Jordan, hiya pal!

hiya pal 

On 11/26/2018 at 10:26 PM, old caley girl said:

Rude! 

Is it only you thats allowed an opinion? 

Caley Girl

Please accept my apologies didnt mean to offend.

Waken up people its a team game 

all players have to take responsibility and the management too.

13 hours ago, old caley girl said:

Youd think we had never struggled with lower league opposition in the cup before!! Stranraer or Stirling Albion anyone? 

RIG and Stan sum it up for me. Not a good day! It was cold and wet and a throughly miserable afternoon.  You could see how disappointed the players were at the end as they and we know we let it slip in the second half when we should have gone for the jugular. 

This always had banana skin potential. Lets hope weve learned a lesson and can finish this off quickly on the 4th. 

PS White's lack of movement around  the ball really starting to annoy me. Then there is Austin who clearly thinks he is better than he is. 

yawn yawn

1 hour ago, Caley Stan said:

That was what I found most upsetting. We seemed sit off them in second half when it was clear in the first that they struggled when we pressed from the front. The squad is poor, and Robbo's been getting the best out if them, but I thought he fluffed it today. Can't believe White got 70mins - really concerning to see him look just as poor against a lower standard of opposition. Once Robbo had made the changes, I assume to get Polly further forward, we completely failed to get the ball into him. Almost every time we got into forward areas it was the result of a punt and we don't have anyone with the quality to make anything out of those balls. 

Really disappointed today. It was wet, cold and my kids were annoying me for the whole game. I'm definitely leaving them at home and getting hammered the next time I go to watch this shower.

Cant believe you pick out White as the only one to complain about  after that disgrace of a midfield performance.

As I said before White is a decent player , who just happens to be our top goalscorer, but is the scapegoat for many fans.

Well that was a disaster of a performance and once again the usual blah blah of  blame the strikers on here. White in particular is the scapegoat lol.

The midfield was a shambles no creativity at all .Polworth did hee haw but miss a chance to score, he cant play wide right so why does Robbo play him there. Walsh couldnt make a decent cross all day cant miss the first defender.

Why are we playing 2 defensive midfielders in central midfield no creativity from Welsh or Chalmers but thats not their game but Robbo picks them as central midfield,  Madness imo after we did so well in latter part of game against Queens with Polworth central as a two and young McGregor came on wide.

There were two misses from Austin and Polworth  which should have been converted , but in reality we really need to get our midfield sorted to create more opportunities to score Polworth should be playing central, but he was bad today as were all his team mates in midfield.Walsh  created nothing today, its no wonder as he never lifts his head to see his team mates in good positions.

Have to say the pitch is a disgrace no wonder some managers have a right song and dance about these pitches.

We will beat them at home but cmon we really need to uo our game creatively because that today was diabolical.

Absolutely fantastic gesture well done to all involved.

3 hours ago, MorayJaggie said:

Don't remember any of our strikers scoring to rescue the point on Saturday. So yes we still need a regular striker. And three of our 4 were on the park at some point.

If you were at the game you would have seen the difference two strikers on at same time makes to the dynamic of the team,it allows more space for others like Polworth and Walsh as the defence have to keep their wits about them to cover the two forward players, imo both Austin and White did really well when introduced and helped change the outcome of the game. 

This isnt a critiscm of Oakley regarding  the game on Saturday as one up top leaves the striker a bit isolated, I feel we really need to go all out attack on Sunday and two up front as a partnership would help greatly.

3 hours ago, Glen Mhor said:

Great result for the ICT and full credit to Robbo and the boys. Quite agree with other posts that if we are serious about promotion we do need spend in the January window. Our unbeaten run and results like this show the team has a backbone but we do need some more firepower up front.

We need to sort out the silly mistakes at the back

The strikers are fine just need to play two of them up top and get decent balls into box.

Been saying this for weeks, on Saturday we needed 3 goals to just obtain a draw, cmon we need to wake up and stop blaming the strikers.

Will say it again Thank God for Ridgers,apart from his dashing out of box on Saturday.

However that first goal was shambolic and we need to be more disciplined as a defensive unit when we are attacking and not through as many bodies forward.

Below is a quote from a Queen of South Fan taken from pie and bovril

" We really should have been out of sight with the number of good chances we created before  JR changed the game.

I was both surprised and relieved to see White and Austin on the bench today but boy, did they make a difference when introduced.

Fair play to JR as he must have thought we have nothing to lose, let's go for it and see where it takes us."

Hopefully Robbo goes two up top  next week v Edinburgh City

Well done to all the team today 

fantastic fightback.

1 hour ago, ictchris said:

I think we played on Dunfermline's old plastic pitch in 2004/05, drawing both games 0-0.  From what I can find they got rid of it that close season.

that gives us an overall record of

P22 W8 D8 L6 F22 A20

Only lost 27% of games so not too shabby

43 minutes ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

To be honest apart from the missed header by Oakley and the late pathetic 1-1 fluffed chance for Partick those were the feckin highlights !!

tbf you are absolutly correct,didnt think it was a great performance at all.Thats why I will  continue to bang on about changing formation.

I understand that on Saturday it was difficult to do so with losing Calder, having Tremarco and Rooney injured, however we really need to be looking to change to a formation that is a bit more attacking as we are allowing teams to have a real go at us with the existing formation. Sometimes attack is the best method of defence.

Partick should have been out of sight in the first half ,and they are a team who have been rubbish recently.

Thank God for Ridgers because the defence just got opened up again so easily at times. Also it was interesting to see you only gave a 2 to Oakley ,but that dosent make him a bad player, but highlights the difficulty of the position of playing one up on his own, we have 3 good strikers on our books surely we have to start utilising them properly.

Having said It was a brilliant victory and a wonderful goal from Walsh ,good to see midfielders chipping in with goals.

Wins are what we want no doubt about it ,hopefully we can start to be a bit more confident in ourselves and really go for teams and get some decent wins on board , after all we are 24 games unbeaten which is no mean feat at all.

A win at Queens with a good performance would put us in a great position going forward.

43 minutes ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

I think that forresjags is saying that we don't want another draw. Of course a win would be the desired outcome but a defeat would end the never ending sequence of draws.

yeah no sh#t sherlock

16 minutes ago, forresjags said:

Daft as it sounds but maybe a loss on Saturday would not be such a bad thing(would happily settle for a win tho).

Maybe give us the chance to kick start our season again.

I think my suggestion of formation change is better than what you have just said

Stats for defence dont stack up overall tho thats my point.

In the away games we have have only conceded 1 goal and 4 clean sheets which is a fantastic performance , we have scored 5 goals and achieved 9 points from a potential 15 which is 60% achieved of away points. If we continued this form away from home all season it would be an excellent performance.

Now here is the rub we have scored 10 goals at home which is double the goals scored away but we have conceded 9 goals which is 9 times as many goals conceded at home than away.

Home form has always been accepted as where a championship challenge can be built on but as I pointed out in 4 of our games at home we have conceded 2 goals meaning we have to score 3 to win, we managed 1 win out of these 4 games, but we are certainly making it more difficult to achieve the 3 points by having to score 3 goals to win the game. We have achieved 9 points from a potential 21 which is only 43% points achieved compared to 60% away.

So its not just as easy as saying a lack of goals thats costing us, there are other factors which I have indicated. We have failed to score in two games and that has led to  blame being laid at lack of goals ,one of these games was against league leaders. However we have conceded 2 goals each game 4 times , in these 4  games we have managed to salvage 3 draws and a victory ,therefore I think blaming lack of goals has covered up what in reality is the real reason for costing us points at home. Our home defensive record has to improve if we want to have any chance of challenging for the title.

I stand by my suggestion of 352  as worthy of being tried,  by introducing McCart as extra defensive cover ,having  Oakley and White up top together for more opportunities of scoring to achieve the win we have craved for so long.

13 hours ago, bdu98196 said:

 

We need to find a solution that works otherwise we could go through the season and are in danger of being a team of invincibles that may not even make the playoffs!!!

Totally agree with you in regards the above statement and thats exactly why I made my original suggestion of changing formation to 352.

We havent tried this system ,so how do we know it wont work until we try it.

9 hours ago, MorayJaggie said:

Having a good knowledge of the court system and the fact the judge has deferred sentencing until 4th December generally means he/she will have requested background reports be done on Calder as they may decide that the severity of the crime merits a prison term. If he/she felt it was a minor crime they would have dealt with the sentencing there and then so they aren't looking at this as a minor punch up outside a pub on a Saturday night. That in itself should indicate the severity of the assault.

Im sure having a good knowledge of the court system in whatever capacity ,you will be aware they dont always come to the correct decision in both guilt or sentencing

I can understand everyones dismay and disappointment that this has occured, but surely we all have to careful in our judgement of the lad,especially saying his caeeer should be over etc.

I think this is where Doofers Dad is coming from, and I can understand his pov.

However I also understand the majority of views on here too.

Its a very sad situation but justice has to be done and Riccardo has been found guilty, the sentence will be passed on 4th December.

Whatever happens now and after sentence is passed,  hopefully both parties can get on with their respective lives in their chosen caeeers in the future.

This has put the club in a very difficult situation and Im sure they will be taking legal advice on how to proceed.

28 minutes ago, CaleyD said:

Not a criticism of White or Oakley (or any other player) but being in the top ten of something with only 10 teams isn't an indicator of anything!  That would be like saying Falkirk are having a great season as they are top 10 in the league!

Well not exactly as there is chances of 13 outfield  players from each team playing each week in the Championship. So for White to have only 5 players scorng more goals out of 130 and Oakley only to have 9 players scoring more than him is not too shabby.

My point is that 2 forwards have contributed to 47% of our total league goals and infact they have contributed 54% of league goals scored in open play.

White 31% and Oakley 23% respectively.

Its surely not an insane idea to have them on the pitch at the same time.

Only 5 players have scored  league goals for us in open play White,Oakley,Rooney,Polworth and Calder so getting as much playing time as we can for them wouldnt be a bad idea surely.

11 hours ago, Caley Stan said:

The back 4 has looked greater than the sum of its parts every time I've seen it. We've got the second best defensive record in the league so the last thing I'd want to do is start messing around back there.

Basically, I don't think there's a system that can compensate for our lack of decent creative players and goalscorers and Robbo knows that. He'll continue to try different combinations in forward areas in the hope that something gels - we still haven't seen MacKay, Austin or Oakley in a run of games this season. 

Agree with you regarding the defence overall  but it is the away form that is exceptional only losing 1 goal away from home.However if you take the home games we have conceded 9 goals  and in 3 games conceded 2 goals  each game. This means we have to score 3 to win those games at home we did so in one of those games scoring 3 v Partick Thistle. It really does make it harder for us to win 3 points at home when we have to score 3 to do so. Yes we have had games where we didnt score at home against Ayr Utd but when you look at where they are in the league ,was that such a bad result. Probably the one where we should have done better was against Queens but the worst one was against Alloa who we should be beating at home but we did score 2 that day but also conceded 2 to only give us the draw. If we can sort out the silly defensive errors at home then we would be further up the table no doubt about it. It isnt the lack of goals thats cost us points but not having a good defensive record at home. I think that having McCart as an extra defender with 3 at the back also allowing  Rooney and Calder to come back as we defend  would give us more cover.

Where I cant agree with you is regarding decent midfielders or goalscorers as  Polworth has had 4 assists, also White and Oakley are in the top ten goalscorers in the league. My suggetion of playing 352 would enhance the defensive cover with McCart, continue to allow Polworth to play in the middle and have two decent goalscorers on the pitch at the same time.

It was a great performance on Saturday but it was still a draw,we have had great performances before with this 4231 formation against Dunfermline and again against Partick where we won both games.

Oakley came back in and scored but in actuality we only replaced one goalscorer with another as White had scored 3 in his previous 4 games.

Oakley and White represent 47% of our goals so surely it would be a good idea to have both players on the park at the same time.

We played a 442 for first three league games which meant Polworth on right side where he is least effective imo.However as I rate him as creative player in the middle of the park.

So maybe it would be worth looking at a 352 keeping Polworth in the middle and having Rooney who has scored 3 league goals as RWB an Calder who has recently chipped in with 1 goal as LWB

4 players White ,Oakley ,Rooney and Calder starting the game makes sense to me as these 4 players have contributed 11 out of the 15 goals which we have scored in the league so far.

If we continue with one striker we reduce our goals tally by 27% if White is on the bench, and by 20% if Oakley is on the bench so therefore surely it makes sense when we need a win, to have 2 players who have contributed to nearly half of our goal tally on their own, to play both players as a front two.

 As someone once said the definition of insanity is to keep on doing the same thing and expect different results, 4231 formation in the last 7 games have got us draws ,maybe a small tweak to a 352 would get us the win we all crave.

Also this would mean that McCart would come as part of a back 3 with Brad and Coll ,leaving Rooney and Calder to play as wing backs and they can fall back when defenfing to create a five back line. Oakley and White up top Polworth in the middle with the other two slots coming from Walsh Doran Chalmers and Welsh who incidently havent scored a league goal in open play between them so far this season.My choice to start would be Chalmers and Doran with Polworth.

So a lineup for Partick as follows

Ridgers

McKay Donaldson McCart

Rooney Doran Polworth Chalmers Calder

Oakley White 

May just get us the win we all want.

Roll on Saturday

On 11/3/2018 at 11:43 AM, CaleyD said:

Couldn't disagree more with this.  We all go through periods where we benefit from a little bit of a motivational pick-me-up....be that in work, or just day to day life.

It happens for various reasons, but as often as not it's because people lack a little belief in themselves and doubt starts to creep in...the more you focus on it, the deeper you get into the hole.

I've been doing an NLP and Life Coaching Diploma with a guy called Don MacNaughton.  I first met Don when he used to come in and work with ICTFC players during Terry Butcher's time at the club...and there are few who could argue that Terry didn't get the best from his players when here...so the evidence that working on the mental aspect of things with players is beneficial and there for all to see.

Many of the larger clubs (and an increasing number of not so large clubs) do regular sessions of this nature with players, and an increasing number are working with players at a young age.  This means that more among future generations of players will have the tools to help themselves with the mental aspect of the game, but it won't be with everyone and unless a club are developing it themselves and/or signing players who've been at clubs who do...then many aren't going to have it as part of their arsenal.

If a club isn't investing in a third party to undertake mental coaching, then it's even more important that the manager (or coaches) undertake the role of motivator.  That's not a judgement on what Robbo and the staff are or aren't doing at present; and whilst I'd be concerned if they weren't doing something in this area, I don't actually know if they are or not.

Personally...In the last 20 months I've gone from being a 31.5 stone heart attack waiting to happen, to a far happier 19 stone (and dropping) bloke who's got a chance of making it beyond his 45th birthday.  I didn't need to be taught how to get off my ass, go for a walk/run/cycle or how to count calories (although I did do a 6 week gym based bootcamp)...but I did need a bit of help to develop the mental habits and exercises that are helping me become a better version of myself...on all fronts.

Well said lots of good valid points,well done too on your personal achievements so far.

8 hours ago, RiG said:

I thought that was an absolutely enthralling game. There was plenty of quality on show for most of the game and at times when the quality dropped away it was still end to end action, a good serving of chances for each side to get a winner, controversial moments and players getting it up the opposition fans.

From an ICT PoV it's massively disappointing we couldn't find a winner. I think we probably were the better team over the game but if you can't get the ball into the net then you can't complain too much if you don't bag the three points.

County took the lead when Lindsay found himself with time and space about 25 yards out to collect a pass, compose himself then dispatch a low drive into the net beyond Ridgers despairing grasp.  ICT were back in it moments later when Doran scampered down the left and crossed to Walsh at the back post and he headed the ball to Oakley who turned it in from a few yards out.

ICT then had a period of pressure where we forced a number of corners and after County cleared the last of them, Polworth (I think) was played in down the left flank and sent a low ball into the six yard box where it seemed to bobble about a bit before it was turned in by Rooney of all people. 

County were nearly back in it when a high ball to the back post found Mckay (Billy) towering above Mckay (Brad) to head towards goal but Ridgers, somehow, clawed the ball off the line. A truly outstanding save but Mckay wasn't too be denied and shortly after he had a hand in the equaliser. Vigurs split the ICT back line with a wonderful through ball into the channel and Mckay scampered after it and drilled the ball into the box where Mckay (Brad) slid in and diverted the ball into his own net. A poor goal to concede and I can't recall where Ridgers was as it looked like it would have been a pretty easy ball to gather for him. 

Into the second half and County started the better side and should have been a goal up when Vigurs found time and space at the back post to send a ball across the face of goal where everyone left it including Kelly who slid in at the other post and sent the ball wide with the goal gaping. ICT were not in at all but then had the best chance of the second half when one of the County defenders completely missed a through ball which allowed Doran to get in behind the away defence and he teed up Polworth who steadied himself and hit the post with Fox beaten. Easily the best chance that ICT would get to win the game or so we thought as Calder then sent in a delicious cross from the left flank which White just failed to connect with at the back post with Fox scrambling across his goal.

Again Inverness almost got a third when the County left side was exposed and MacKay (I think) crossed for Doran but the ball, again, was just ahead of the ICT player and as Doran slide in he couldn't get enough on the ball to steer it into the net. County then had a good chance of their own to grab a winner when Vigurs lifted a free kick into the box and it was met by Graham who headed it towards goal but Ridgers sprung into action and palmed it away.

A draw probably the fair result in a pretty breathtaking game. As I said at the start I think that's one of the best games I've seen in a long time. Was very happy with how ICT played. We got a lot of chance out of County down their right side, especially when we got in behind their right midfielder and right centre back. Calder had a great game defending well and sending in some great crosses. Chalmers had one of his best games for us and Polworth, despite missing that glorious chance in the second half, was everywhere and Vigurs was again left to hatchet tactics to stop him getting past him for the umpteenth time when he rugby tackled him to the ground. Donaldson was a class act at the back and Mckay (Brad) had a better second half at right back than he did first half in the centre. Great to see Rooney and Mckay (Billy) engage in some getting it right up the fans celebrations as well.

Can't wait for the next Derby next month after that.

excellent report ,was a great game to watch and as you say a draw was probably the fairest result.

27 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

A reasonable point of view. Personally, I would have preferred if he had remained and learned to be a bit more constructive and a lot less abusive.

Nothing wrong with your pov either.